Trigeminal Neuralgia by Marc Balbirnie

I wrote this piece after witnessing the effects of a neurological disorder. The illness has been dubbed by medical professionals as 'the suicide disease' due to its lack of obvious external symptoms and the regular painful electric shocks that it causes to the face. The composition was originally written for 5.1 performance to create an immersive and overwhelming audience experience. Unfortunately soundcloud only supports stereo so the version here is not quite as dramatic or spatially immersive. Trigeminal Neuralgia was chosen for performance at a Spatial Music Collective concert at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.after an international call for works in 2011.
The photo was taken by Cathy Geagan.